Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf was the Minister of Information in the dying
days of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Nicknamed “Comical Ali” by
British tabloids, al-Sahaf made a fool of himself during the Iraqi war
by constantly fabricating victories of the Iraqi army, even as territory
after territory fell to the American-led allied forces.
What was so ridiculous about him was that his lies were so blatant,
only fools could believe them. Even when American tanks rolled into
Baghdad, Comical Ali declared: “There is no presence of the American
columns in the city of Baghdad at all. We besieged them and we killed
most of them. Today, the tide has turned. We are destroying them. The
Americans are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks.”
Lai Mohammed
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, is
Nigeria’s home-grown “Comical Ali.” It would not be unfair to fashion
him as “the Minister of FABU.” Barely two months of assuming office,
Mohammed has established himself as an instrument of cheap propaganda
and disinformation. On internet blogs today, he is now generally
referred to by his traducers as “Liar Mohammed.” Without a doubt, he
has earned this sobriquet by his penchant to be extremely economical
with the truth.
Lai Mohammed’s tall tales have now reached epidemic proportions. It
is a contradiction in terms that a government that claims to be
anti-corruption, and a president that boasts to be a man of integrity,
should have a “Comical Ali” as its face and spokesman. It is doubtful
that Mohammed can stop being himself. However, if President Buhari is
interested in redeeming his now battered image, he needs to admit he
made a big error of judgment in appointing Mohammed as a minister.
Lai Mohammed must be fired immediately. Barring which, the only
honourable thing left for the Honourable Minister to do is to resign. A
Minister of Information should not be allowed to become a Minister of
Misinformation.
Fictitious Victory
On 23 December, 2015, Mohammed told a meeting of editorial heads of
media houses in Lagos that the Nigerian military has met President
Buhari’s deadline to defeat Boko Haram before 31 December, 2015.
Said Mohammed: “Today, I can report that the war against Boko Haram
is largely won. Today, I can report to you that the entire 70 plus
kilometres stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki which
leads to Cameroun and the Central African Republic are in the hands of
our gallant troops. They have so degraded the capacity of Boko Haram
that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they
can no longer carry out any spectacular attack.”
Rather than call his minister to order, President Buhari backed him
up in the bid to white-wash the gaffe of predicting Boko Haram would be
defeated before the end of the year. He told the BBC: “Boko Haram has
reverted to using improvised explosive devices. They have now been
reduced to that. But articulated conventional attacks on centres of
communication and populations.. they are no longer capable of doing that
effectively.
So I think technically we have won the war because people
are going back into their neighbourhoods. Boko Haram as an organised
fighting force, I assure you, that we have dealt with them.”
The president conveniently forgot he had said at his inaugural
address that: “We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without
rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by
insurgents.”
We have heard nothing about the Chibok girls.
Nevertheless, the president now says Boko Haram has been technically
defeated. Are we therefore to conclude that the Chibok girls have also
been technically rescued?
Boko Haram Response
The victory declarations of Lai Mohammed and President Buhari turned out
not only to be palpably false, but outrightly dangerous. Just two
days after Mohammed’s declaration, the Boko Haram who he says “can no
longer carry out any spectacular attack” attacked Kimba in Borno State.
They killed 14 hapless people and razed the village to the ground.
According to eye-witness reports, “not a single house was spared in the
arson.”
One day later, a coordinated fighting unit of Boko Haram infantry
attacked Maiduguri. They came in a military convoy, precisely the
manner the president boasted is now impossible. They then dug in for a
pitched battle against the Nigerian army. Thereafter, two female
suicide-bombers detonated explosives in the Jiddari area of Maiduguri,
with casualty figures yet to be determined.
There is no doubt these attacks were direct responses to APC’s vain
propaganda. Boko Haram decided to give the lie to the bombastic
statements that it has been defeated either technically or in
actuality. To drive home the point beyond reasonable doubt, the
insurgents chose to attack Maiduguri, the very command and control
epicentre of Nigeria’s military operations in the North-east.
Clearly, the defeat of Boko Haram only exists as figments in the
imaginations of APC propagandists. Having won the election by
manipulating the press, they now seek to govern by employing a cacophony
of jobless youth whose charge is to post “SAI Buhari” comments on as
many internet blogs as possible. They also have the mandate to attack
anyone who refuses to buy the many-splendored FABUS of the APC
government.
APC’s bogus propaganda is partly responsible for the deaths and
destruction in Kimba, Aladuwari and Maiduguri, the full extent of which
are yet to be determined. The false victory procession of APC
chieftains provoked the Boko Haram to contradict them at the cost of
Nigerian lives. It is way too early to call for the impeachment of Mr.
President. But it is high time to call for the retirement of Lai
Mohammed. We must not allow this local “Comical Ali” to continue to use
Nigerian lives to score cheap political points.
While the APC was busy celebrating the fictitious death of Boko
Haram, the New York-based Institute for Economics and Peace declared in
its latest Global Terrorism Index that Boko Haram “has become the most
deadly terrorist group in the world.” The day before Mohammed’s
bombast, UNICEF declared that Boko Haram has succeeded in keeping over
one million children out of school, warning that this is likely to add
fuel to the insurgency by radicalizing the youth in the North-east.
Campaign Recantations
It was Lai Mohammed who told Nigerians the promises of the APC during
the election were actually not from the APC. The APC denied its key
presidential campaign documents: “My Covenant with Nigerians” and “One
Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days.” Buhari himself presents one
of the documents in the first person, saying: “The covenant is derived
from the manifesto of my party, the All Progressives Congress. It
however represents my pledge to you all when I become your president.”
But once he became president, Mohammed denied them. He swore that:
“Buhari never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest
truth.” However, when APC Senators were forced to vote against their
own campaign promise to provide N5,000 monthly to 25 million unemployed
Nigerians, Mohammed declared that the government already has 1.4
trillion naira recovered from banks through the TSA ready to fulfil the
promise. He said we should expect it in the 2016 budget.
These are his words: “The non-implementation of the payment policy so
far is due to the fact that it was not included in the 2015 budget. The
Muhammadu Buhari administration has been busy putting in place measures
that will make it possible to start the implementation of this
project.”
This has turned out as usual to be another tissue of lies. The 2016
budget has now been announced, and there is nothing about the N5000
stipend for the 25 million unemployed.
Presidential Doublespeak
The government of President Buhari is replete with contradictions and doublespeak.
At the APC South-East rally in Owerri, Buhari declared he would make the
naira equal to the dollar if voted into office. He continued: “It is
sad that the value of the naira has dropped to more than 230 to one
dollar. This does not speak well for the nation’s economy.” How does it
speak for the economy now that the value of the naira has dropped under
Buhari to 280 to the dollar?
Buhari said: “Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing
large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following
was given posthumous fame and following by his extra-judicial murder at
the hands of the police.” What then are we to say about the
extra-judicial massacre of over 300 Shiite Muslims in Zaria at the hands
of the Nigerian army under this Buhari administration?
Buhari said during the campaign: “You are all my people; I will treat
you all as mine. I will work for those who voted for me, voted against
me and those who didn’t vote at all.” Then he said after the campaign:
“The constituents (that) gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated on
some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.”
On his election, the president said: “Our long night is over and a
new dawn has come… Democracy and rule of law will be put in place.” “I
pledge myself and the government to the rule of law, in which none shall
be so above the law that they are not subject to its dictates, and none
shall be so below it that they are not availed of its protection.” But
under his administration, democracy and the rule of law has continued
to be violated. The DSS ignores court verdicts with impunity, as
happened in the case of Dasuki and Kanu.
Justice Muazu Pindigi was summarily replaced by Justice Ambrosa as
chairman of the Rivers state governorship petitions tribunal and PDP’s
victory was quickly annulled. Pindigi said: “The Supreme Court has said
that for an election to be annulled, the petitioner has to prove that
elections didn’t hold at the polling units where the winner was returned
elected. I’m not sure that the Ambrosa’s judgment arrived through that
route.”
During the election, Buhari declared the maintenance of the
presidential fleet of aircrafts a colossal waste of money. He said:
“For me, when we come into office, all these waste will be blocked and
properly channeled into our economy.” However, since he became
president, not a single plane has been sold. Billions of naira continue
to be spent as the president has gone on one international junket after
the other.
